STARKVILLE - Mississippi State concluded its two-game exhibition slate Saturday afternoon with a 90-70 victory over Georgetown College, an NAIA school.

With the season opener on Friday against Rider, coach Rick Stansbury still sees plenty of areas for improvement.

"Overall, we were much better today," Stansbury said, compared to an 82-54 win against Oklahoma City on Oct. 31. "There are some areas, though, we really need to get better at. We just have to execute better."

MSU senior Jarvis Varnado was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and led the Bulldogs with 17 points. The preseason All-SEC center also had nine rebounds and five blocked shots.

"Overall, we got better," said Varnado. "I am ready to get at it and see what we can do in the regular season."

Mississippi State held a comfortable 41-22 advantage at halftime. Georgetown cut the lead to seven points on two occasions in the second half .

Junior forward Kodi Augustus added 16 points and 11 boards and drew praise from his coach.

"I've been very pleased with Kodi's effort," noted Stansbury. "My challenge to him today was affect the game or change the game besides making three-point shots. And he did that."

Dee Bost added 14 points and eight assists for the Bulldogs while Phil Turner had 12 points off the bench.

Junior guard Riley Benock, who suffered an offseason ankle injury, returned to the mix on Saturday and played 13 scoreless minutes.

Freshman guard Shaun Smith was sidelined with a hip injury he aggravated in practice last week. He will have an MRI on Monday.